Cleaning out the Closets (A Week in Review)

http://loriportka.com/

So we are finally finished moving into our new home. Sort of. Mostly.

I still have to go back to the old house and yardsale all the stuff we left behind. And speaking of stuff we left behind: that's mostly what this post is about. I'm going to try to keep it short, mostly because I still have so much left to do with the unpacking and the sorting, and the picking up/dropping off children, and the grocery shopping, and on and on....

We chose to move for several reasons. And it was stressful. Really, really stressful. I posted about this a while back before we even started the official move, and as that day got closer, my anxiety and irritability, and awful eating habits just kept getting worse and worse. And I knew it, but I couldn't stop it.

And then something amazing happened. Last Sunday, when it was all said and done, my husband and I were standing around in our new living room, and we both realized (almost simultaneously) how relieved we were, on so many levels. And not relieved that the actual moving part was done (although we were), but relieved that we were in a new place, with new beginnings for our family. I had no clue the power of healing that could be found with a simple change in location and scenery. But it wasn't just that. It was what we left behind at the old place. I won't go into all the gory details, but so much of what our old home held was broken, both literally and figuratively. And that "busy" word I use so much, was mostly just a euphemism for stressed the hell out. But I don't think my husband or I quite realized the full extent of it until we finally moved on, literally and figuratively. And now I feel hope again, and I feel like I can relax (a little), and just enjoy my home and my family. Now we can begin to resemble a "real" or "normal" family again, without all the stress and heaviness we used to feel. We are healing, and I will never, ever, let myself or us go back to what we were. Like the picture above says, I am choosing to live a life I love, from now .

Now on to a few other tidbits from the week. I didn't get to post a Meal Plan Monday due to the move. Plus I was so off track with eating, it would have been inappropriate to list almost anything I ate on this, my "healthy" blog. But I am back on track now.  Back to the GYM (so happy!).

I'm on the left. Check out my girl Rosemary's guns!

And I am back to logging on my fitness pal, back to cooking and eating meals at home, and back to posting here. All very, very good things. And since Meal Plan Monday was a bust this week, here are just a few good things I ate (sorry, no pretty pictures):

Breakfast: Two multigrain waffles topped with 1/4 cup lowfat cottage cheese and sliced strawberries

Recovery Green Smoothie (after the gym):  1 cup almond milk, 1/2 of a gala apple chopped, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1/2 medium banana, 1/2 cup nonfat vanilla greek yogurt, 1/2 cup orange juice with calcium, 1 cup kale

Lunch: Lunch has been mainly sandwiches this week, roast beef or ham on cracked wheat sourdough bread with asiago cheese and mustard. (Unfortunately, all of these items register high on the sodium meter, so I know I will have to make some changes there). I usually have my sandwiches with grape tomatoes or other crunchy veggies on the side for some texture and to circumvent my chip craving that comes with sandwich consumption :)

Dinner: We have taco night once a week at our house. It's tradition. Tacos in our house are not fancy. They are made with ground beef (93% lean), and premade taco shells. Deal with it. But most of the time, I also make pumpkin black bean poblano tacos for myself (the kids and hubby don't care for them and that's okay). This week I also made guacamole using my bestie's recipe which clocks in at about 90 calories per serving, and had that with some Garden of Eatin' gluten free organic blue corn chips. Delish.

Well, I am off to make a snack and then organize my new closet. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Meal Plan Monday

Since my last post was a bit of a downer, I decided to share with you a good day for me from last week. I am hoping to do this every Monday as a series: pick my favorite day of the week eatingwise and share it with you. I say hoping because, well, you know, I'm busy. So here is what my best day looked like last week:

Breakfast: This my friends, is what I refer to as a "bowl of goodness". I stole that name from a website I can't recall at this very moment, and probably could google to figure it out and give them credit, but I need to finish this post so I can get to bed. Anywho, a bowl of goodness for me always starts with oatmeal. Then I just throw in a bunch of yummy, healthy, reasonably sized portions of good stuff and mix it all up into a hot mess. (The picture above was taken pre-hot mess). This particular bowl consisted of a half cup of rolled oats cooked in half of a cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, half a cup water, and a teaspoon of homemade Indonesian vanilla extract we got from my mother-in-law for Christmas. Then I added two teaspoons of Better N' Peanut Butter (lower sodium and fat than regular peanut butter and still tastes great), a heaping tablespoon of nonfat vanilla greek yogurt, half a tablespoon of chia seeds (great source of fiber), 1/8 cup raisins, 1/4 cup blackberries, and half of a tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder. It was the bomb. I also had a cup of black coffee.

I normally have a snack mid-morning, but I was still really full from my bowl of goodness, so I ended up foregoing the snack. Then came lunch:

Lunch consisted of a curry chicken salad sandwich on toasted Ezekiel sprouted grain bread (a low glycemic product I love, but to me it only tastes good toasted). The chicken salad recipe I used was a hybrid made from two sources: the cookbook Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, and a "super foods" diet plan published in Self Magazine. I combined the two to make up my own recipe mainly because Skinny Bitch's recipe (like all of their recipes) is vegan (as in vegan mayonnaise and fake chicken).  I have no problem with vegan mayo on principle, but it's not for me. And Self Magazine's recipe wasn't very complex (i.e. not that flavorful). So here is my adapted/hybrid chicken salad recipe:

Chunky Curry Chicken Salad

2/3 cup chicken breast, cooked and chopped (if you are pressed for time, use the precooked stuff)
1 tbsp canola mayonnaise (I used Best Foods brand)
1 tbsp plain nonfat greek yogurt
1/2 tsp curry powder
Dash of ground black pepper to taste
1 to 2 tsp raw lemon juice to taste
1/2 stalk celery, chopped
1/4 cup red seedless grapes, halved or quarted depending on size

Combine the mayo, yogurt, spices, and lemon juice in a bowl. Fold in the chicken, grapes, and celery. In case you were wondering, according to Self Magazine, the curry and grapes are what qualifies this recipe as "super".  I also had a fuji apple and home brewed green tea with lemon juice with my sandwich. And yes, the sandwich is on a skull and crossbones plate. We have a full set.

Mid-Afternoon: I had a green smoothie which I made using my go to recipe, minus chia seeds since I had already had some with breakfast: 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 tablespoon almond butter, half of a frozen banana, 1 cup spinach, and 1 scoop protein powder (I used Garden of Life Raw Organic Protein). I added the protein powder because I was going to my daughter's basketball game and knew I was going to end up eating a late dinner. The added protein helped me feel full until then. Sorry, no picture for the smoothie. BUT, I also had this:

Two squares of dark chocolate. I actually had this before the smoothie, around 2:30, when I got a hankering for something sweet. I had the smoothie around 4:00, right before I left for the basketball game.

Dinner: Again, no picture for this meal but that was mainly due to the fact that it was kind of late by the time I cooked it (about 7:00), and I didn't feel like waiting any longer to eat. I had "brinner" (breakfast for dinner). I scrambled three egg whites and one whole egg with a quarter cup of black beans (drained and rinsed) in a pan with Emeril's brand nonstick canola oil spray, and topped that with a third of an avocado chopped, and some Cholula hot sauce. Delicious! I finished the night with some chai tea. Black tea is warming, and I needed it. It's been so damn cold this winter!

The whole day clocked in at 1409 calories, 169 grams of carbs (my exact allowance for carbs), 47 grams of fat, 95 grams of protein (one gram over my daily goal), and 40 grams of fiber (23 grams over my daily goal!) Like I've mentioned, I just love it when my numbers add up. And extra protein and fiber is always a good thing in my world.

I didn't work out on this day, but if I had, I would have added in some more calories. I usually aim to eat back about half of the calories I burn when I work out. I got this idea from an article in an athletic magazine that reported most online calculators overestimate the number of calories burned through various activities. The article stated unless you wear a heart monitor, your total calories burned through may be a lot lower than you think. Since I don't have a heart monitor (yet-fingers crossed for my birthday), I use the "half formula", rather than eating back all of the calories I think I burned. Just the way I do it.

So there it is: my first addition of Meal Plan Monday. Hope you enjoyed it. What did you eat on your best day this week?

Why You Should Drink Green Smoothies

Okay, okay, stay with me, you've made it this far! I realize that to a lot of people, the thought of drinking a green(ish) drink is less than appealing. And you might look at the picture above and think, there is no way I want to stick a straw in that and guzzle it down. But here's the thing: green smoothies can and do taste really good!! And the benefits of drinking green smoothies are awesome. Drinking one nutrient dense smoothie every day can help drastically reduce sugar cravings and improve fiber intake, which helps promote weight loss/weight management. For more examples of green smoothie benefits, click here: http://greensmoothiesblog.com/health-benefits-green-smoothie/

I drink a green smoothie every day. Without fail. While I am not even close to certified in... well, anything, I can give you my own personal, albeit anecdotal, opinion: they work. Once I incorporated a green smoothie into my daily routine, I had tons more energy, felt fuller throughout the day, and had less sugar cravings. Now here are some reasons why, even if you're a busy lady like myself, you CAN make them part of your routine too:

1. They're easy to make and clean up. All you need is a blender, some fruits, green veggies, liquid (if you want a thinner smoothie) and ice (and that's optional, I don't use ice in winter). Blend everything up and rinse out the blender. Done.

2. There are about a gazillion smoothie recipes out there, so you won't get bored. Just google "green smoothie" or "green monster smoothie". Also, see below for links to some of my favorites.

3. You can make them ahead. So many people tell me, "I don't have time to make a smoothie every day" or "I wanted to make one, but the day just got away from me". And I tell them: make your smoothie at night, before you go to bed, and pour it into an airtight container (I use a canning jar). The next morning, pull it out, shake it up, and guzzle. Or, you can even take it with you to work and save it for a mid-morning snack like I often do.

4. Kids like them too. Because they taste good. Really, I swear! So you can double a recipe and share with your kids or hubby and maybe help them make better choices too. Win, win. If your kids are reluctant to try them at first, you can start by adding just one or two spinach leaves or pieces of kale to the first smoothie, and gradually increasing the amount each day or each week. Baby steps.

My go to Green Smoothie recipe can be found here: http://greenmonstermovement.com/ along with tons of reader recipes for green smoothies. When I make it, I use:

1 banana (frozen)
1 cup vanilla almond milk, unsweetened
1 tbsp chia seeds
2 handfuls (about a cup each) spinach
1 tbsp raw almond butter (you don't have to use raw, it's easier to find the no stir kind, but it contains sugar)
Protein powder (optional, I add this to my smoothie if I am going to drink it before or after a workout, or if want to use my smoothie to replace a meal)

Here is a link to the protein powder I use: http://www.gardenoflife.com/Products-for-Life/Foundational-Nutrition/RAW-Protein.aspx

Other links for green smoothie recipes I love:

http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating-green-tea-mango-smoothie-for-the-no-sugar-challenge/

http://foodbabe.com/2011/11/02/the-hari-shake-a-poem/


You will notice when you start to look up green smoothie recipes that everyone has their own special blending instructions. I will be honest with you, I don't follow them. I just combine everything and blend until smooth. Done. But it does help to put the ingredients in the blender in a certain order, especially if your blender is not that powerful. The order I use is:

Liquid
Fruit
Yogurts and/or butters (such as almond butter or protein powder-if using)
Greens
Frozen fruit and/or ice

If I am adding protein powder, I blend everything else first and then add the protein powder at the end and blend a little more.

Other tips:

If your recipe calls for banana, go with a frozen banana. They make the smoothie taste creamier and more like a shake, which is nice on days when you might be craving that sort of thing. I take bananas, peel them, break them in half, and freeze in plastic bags every week so that I always have them on hand.

If a recipe calls for something you don't have, just omit it (unless it's greens), or replace it with something else. There's no exact science to this! Experiment with combinations. Add stuff you like to existing recipes. And if there is an ingredient you don't have, but have also never tried, like chia seeds for instance, maybe go buy some and try something new too.

If you end up drinking your green smoothie in a public place, like work or school, ignore those who may give you funny looks or make snarky comments. People are idiots. Don't let that deter you from doing something great for yourself! Even if it's your own friends or family members.

DISCLAIMER: Lastly, I want to be sure that anyone reading this knows: I don't advocate for any kind of juice cleanses, or all smoothie diets, or anything of the kind. What I recommend to people is to simply add one green smoothie per day to an existing diet. That's what works for me and I hope it will work for you too.